The Last Patriot - Brad Thor [7]
“So it wasn’t a random attack. They had him under surveillance. He was the target.”
Harvath nodded.
“But why? Who is he?”
“That’s what I want to know,” replied Harvath as he produced the wallet he had taken from the man.
“You picked his pocket?”
“Call it professional curiosity,” he said as he withdrew the man’s driver’s license. “Evidently, our bombing target is fifty-three-year-old Anthony Nichols of Charlottesville, Virginia.”
Tracy looked over her shoulder to make sure Nichols couldn’t see what they were doing. “Virginia? What is he, CIA?”
“According to his business card he is Professor Emeritus and Resident Scholar in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia.”
“Which could mean anything.”
Harvath kept looking through the man’s wallet. It contained everything one would expect it to—credit cards, various membership cards, a small paper envelope with a hotel key card and room number written on it, as well as a smattering of other people’s battered business cards.
Harvath was just about to give up when he recognized something about the last card. Removing it from the stack, he studied it once more. It was for an insurance agent with an address in Washington, D.C., but that wasn’t the important part. What had caught Harvath’s attention was the phone number.
He had seen those ten digits before. In fact, he had them committed to memory. “I know this phone number,” he said.
“What’s it for?” asked Tracy.
“A private voice mail box belonging to the president of the United States.”
And with that Harvath knew that whoever Anthony Nichols was, he was a lot more than a professor of history at UVA.
He was about to say as much to Tracy when she looked over at where Nichols had been sitting and said, “He’s gone.”
CHAPTER 5
WASHINGTON, D.C.
At just over six feet tall with dark hair, dark eyes, and a strong jaw-line, thirty-five-year-old Aydin Ozbek looked more like someone from the pages of Esquire magazine than one of the Central Intelligence Agency’s most proficient field operatives.
A second generation American of Turkish descent, Ozbek had grown up in a tony suburb of Chicago, where he was a high school wrestler of considerable note. With an intense intellect and outstanding SAT scores, he attended the University of Iowa on a full academic scholarship and wrestled all four years; attaining repeated all-American status as his team took three Big Ten titles.
Wanting to serve his country after college, Ozbek, or “Oz” as his friends called him, joined the United States Army with his sights set on the Fifth Special Forces Group. He excelled at everything the Army threw at him and broke several records in Ranger School.
Then came the Special Forces Selection and Qualification courses, which were some of the most physically grueling and mentally demanding experiences he had ever undertaken. Being awarded the Green Beret was one of the greatest accomplishments of Ozbek’s life.
Prior to 9/11, he had served as a medical sergeant, known as an 18 Delta, under a president and national defense strategy that didn’t allow the Special Forces community to carry out the kinds of missions they had been trained for. In short, they didn’t see much action.
With his Special Forces, medical, and Arabic training, it wasn’t hard for Ozbek to find exciting employment elsewhere. He worked extensively for the State Department, operating out of embassies around the world, and even did a short stint with storied U.S. operative Painter Crowe and his elite Sigma Force unit before landing at the CIA with the National Clandestine Service.
The mission statement of the NCS, formerly known as the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, was to coordinate human intelligence, known as HUMINT, between the CIA and other agencies like the FBI, DIA, DSS, INSCOM, Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, and the Office of Naval Intelligence.
In addition to eliminating turf battles with the FBI, State Department, and Department of Defense, the NCS’ mission included conducting covert operations and recruiting